Closing the Gap
by DHLaw
Summary: Rebecca tortures Damon and Elena comes to his rescue. My take on what should have happened.


_It is easy to see why each man kills the things he loves._

_To know a living thing is to kill it..._

_To try to know a living being is to try to suck the life out of that being. _

_The temptation of the vampire fiend, is this knowledge. _

_The desirous consciousness, the spirit, is a vampire._

_D.H. Lawrence_

With great effort Damon lifted his head and felt his senses coming to life again. The wave of nausea and intense pain indicated the presence of vervain. "Crap" he thought, that would significantly prolong the healing time.

He had spent hours enduring vicious torture at the hands of Rebecca. She had been cruel and sadistic. She had trapped him by sending him a note to come see her as she had information about Sage and her plan to help the Originals. Why had he trusted her? Why would she have changed and willingly given him a lead? He had believed her because he knew how much Rebecca hated Sage. But with retrospect he knew this could never outweigh Rebecca's need for revenge. He had so blatantly used her and his subterfuge was made more cruel by the fact that he had played on her need to be needed, to be desired, and to not be alone. It had been so easy to trap Rebecca in Sage's web and to get into her head. And whilst the sex had been good, make that great, he knew deep down that he would pay somehow for his betrayal. What do they say? "Hell hath no fury like a women scorned". So in a strange reversal of fortune he had openly walked into Rebecca's web, she had staked him as soon as he entered Klaus' house and even as his vampire instincts took hold to fight to protect himself, he knew his incredible strength was still no match for her Original power.

Damon fought off another wave of pain that made him groan deeply whilst a rush of sweat rose to his skin and a tremble worked through his muscles. He could taste the bile rising in his throat over the copper-coin taste of blood, his own. He had been out cold for a while, but now his consciousness took over and his vampire senses indicated he was alone. It was pitch black but his stealth vision could distinguish shapes that merged into solid forms which, when he concentrated indicated he was in a dungeon with solid bluestone walls.

He heard her rapid, adrenaline-fired heartbeat before he caught her familiar scent, mingled with panic. Very human, very scared and very Elena. "What the hell is she doing here" he thought before he cried out in pain with the shift of movement as he desperately tried to right himself.

Elena could distinguish a deep, resounding cry of agony from the depths somewhere in Klaus' mansion. She had been frantically searching the labyrinth of halls and endless rooms for Damon for over ten minutes, but with each negative find her desperation grew. Stefan had acted as a decoy to lure Rebecca out but Elena knew she didn't have much time. She was frantic with fear that she might not find him, that if she did it might already be too late, and that there had been so much anger and bitterness between them the last time they had spoken and she couldn't live knowing Damon had never known how much he meant to her. When she had found out Damon had been kidnapped she had been gripped by an icy panic and a primal instinct to get him back took over. Rage and fear pounded through her veins. "Not Damon, please" repeated over in her head.

Elena stumbled through a hallway towards where she thought the cry had originated, coming across a small door, which upon opening, revealed a stairway leading into pitch blackness. What hit her first was the overwhelming metallic smell of blood and sweat and the palpable tension thick in the air. Her panic rose and constricted her throat making her shout of "Damon" feeble and wirey. The resonating moan in reply gave her immediate hope but a desperate panic overtook her sending her heartrate skyrocketing. She felt a light switch to the right and on flicking it on illuminated a scene of horror. Damon's body was suspended in the air, his arms attached to chains in the ceiling. His body hung limp beneath, the tips of his toes just grazing the ground and his shoulders grotesquely deformed by supporting its full weight. It was the extent of the wounds on his chest and neck and the sheer volume of blood on the floor that alerted Elena to the scale of torture Damon had endured. "Heartless bitch" she murmured as she took in the plastic protecting the floor from bloodstains. Damon stirred at the sound of her voice.

Elena fled to Damon's prone body as if powered by vampire speed, but drew to a halt before him, too scared to touch his broken form. He lifted his head listlessly and Elena couldn't curb her need to hold him so she lightly cupped his upper torso whilst drawing herself within inches of him. The moment the warmth of her touch permeated Damon the tension in his taut muscles relaxed and he gradually bowed his head until it leaned onto her shoulder murmuring "Elena" in a barely audible whisper. She was overwhelmed by a need to connect with him and physically absorb away his pain and so wrapped her hands around the back of his head, the only unscathed part of him, whilst pulling him in closer. "Damon" she responded in a breathy whisper, "I'm here Damon", "you're going to be ok". The long guttural moan in response as Damon rode another wave of pain reverberated through Elena and crushed her feeling of relief at finding him alive – just! "We have to get you out of here" she whispered urgently. Looking up she realized how grave the situation was. The sick bitch Rebecca had attached Damon's hands with steel-jawed animal traps at the end of chains with the serrated jaws ripping through the flesh of Damon's wrists. Blood had poured from these wounds and it appeared one of his wrists was fractured. Damon's chest and neck were criss-crossed with extensive, deep knife cuts and two stab wounds, one in his upper torso near his heart, the other in his lower abdomen. The blood loss was massive.

"Damon hold on, please" Elena said frantically. "I'm so sorry you're hurting, I'm so sorry I've hurt you", she added. "Please, please, hold on for me, come back to me". "I need you, I love you". There, it had slipped out unconsciously but the absolute blinding truth of those three words struck her that she was stupid she had never said them before. She felt Damon's body shift slightly as he struggled to lift his head and pull focus so that his burning gaze could meet hers. He didn't need to verbalize his response, his love for her was echoed back in his eyes before they glazed over again and he wretched in pain before slipping into unconsciousness.

At that moment Elena heard a crashing and Stephan's voice screaming her name. "Here Stephan" she yelled in reply, "in the basement – hurry". Elena's raised voiced pulled Damon back into consciousness in time to see his brother blur in vamp speed down the stairs and take in the horror before him. "Christ" he seethed. "Help me get him down, we have to get him out of here" Elena pleaded.

Stephan wasted no time in reaching up and ripping down the chains whilst grabbing Damon's inert form as he collapsed and pulling him over, away from the pools of blood. He laid him carefully down on the plastic-lined floor yet the movement still caused Damon to writhe in pain. Elena felt a physical shock in response and fell to her knees beside him, taking his face in her hands, her eyes searching his with desperate concern. He could barely feel her touch. He could barely hold on to reality and only the depth of her brown eyes fixed him in the moment. "Damon, we're going to get you out of here", "Stay with me" pleaded Elena as she sensed his will grasping to stay with them. "What kind of psychotic bitch would do this" Stephan fumed. "That's what you get when sleeping with the enemy" he added as he surveyed the damage before him.

"This is going to hurt brother" Stephan warned as he caught Elena's eye and signaled with a nod that she should hold Damon down. "Your chance to get your own back" Damon replied in a stilted voice and Elena and Stephan laughed with relief to hear Damon's weak effort at snarkiness. Stephan chose that moment to strike quickly and ripped the lacerating jaws of the animal trap open to free Damon's right wrist. "Argh" yelled Damon in a low, guttural scream. "One down, one to go", "Elena hold his wrist, I think it's broken" instructed Stephan. The intense pain with the release of his left wrist caused Damon to contort in pain and his breathing quickened. "Shush" implored Elena. "It's ok, you're going to be ok". At the same time she pulled her jacket off, whisked her white shirt over her head, leaving her in a singlet top, and ripped strips off the shirt. She gently bound them around Damon's wrists, holding his gaze.

"Ok brother, we've got to get you out of here", "Can you walk" demanded Stephan. "You've got to be kidding" replied Damon. "We're going to help you" added Elena. But he was so incredibly weak. Stephan practically carried Damon out and Elena followed with tears streaming down her face for this fragile shadow of a man who was normally a pillar of strength.

Thank god she had driven her car there as they would never have gotten Damon in the back seat of his Camaro or in Stephan's car. He was draped across the back seat, his head resting on her lap while Stephan was driving. "You better treat my baby right Stephan, first time I let you drive her" uttered Damon but it was with a weak, ragged voice that forced Elena to evaluate the state of this man sprawled out before her. He was beautiful, surreal almost in his beauty, but broken and bleeding and battered and she felt her heart constrict with the love and pity she felt rise in her. She had placed her sports towel from the back of her car over his gaping abdomen, applying pressure to try to stave the bleeding. She tried not to look at the deep wounds or to think about the intense pain she inflicted with her makeshift bandage. Stephan threw a bloodbag over from the front and yelled back "Get this in him quickly". But Damon was fading, his eyelids drooped and his breathing was so shallow as to be almost inexistent so there was no response when Elena popped open the top of the bloodbag. "Damon please" she implored "Help me", "Drink" she squeezed the blood into his mouth whilst slapping his cheek repeatedly to try to rouse him. He came to slightly as the viscous liquid entered his throat and began to drink, at first feebly then ferociously as his predatory instincts took over. The bag was quickly emptied and Elena ripped the top off another that Stephan handed her but was stopped short by Damon wracked with a cough that brought up a good amount of the blood he had ingested. "Vervain" he managed to splutter " she stabbed me with vervain coated stakes. "Shit" muttered Stephan and Elena was gripped with an icy panic as the realization that she could still lose him took over.

He was a vampire. Vampires require blood for their life force, their very existence, so a vampire's body rejecting this nourishment was not a good sign. Vervain was a herb toxic to vampires, if not lethal in large doses. Elena wasn't sure how much of this toxin had been forced into Damon's bloodstream by Rebecca's malicious torture acts, but it had sure as hell caused additional suffering and would ensure that the rapid vampire healing process was slowed down. Right now it was messing with his primal need for sustenance, life-giving haemoglobin.

As Elena wiped Damon's mouth clean of the regurgitated blood, he croaked "More blood" and she could feel his desperation. She ripped the top off another bag and held it to his mouth, willing him to drink and recover. At that moment Elena looked up and realized they'd been driving too long to reach the boarding house, or her family home. "Where are we going Stephan," she asked. "The lakehouse" was his quick reply, "It's too dangerous to go to the obvious places in Mystic Falls because they'll come looking for him and at the moment he can't defend himself", "we have to lay low for a while, until the vervain works it's way out of his system" he added. "I'll go back to the boarding house later for supplies, we'll need lots of blood".

Elena ran her hands through Damon's raven hair as he reached up to clasp her hand into his and their fingers entwined. "Never thought you'd end up having to rescue me" he murmured, "my own guardian angel". The point of contact on her palm was electrifying, it burned with a heat that reminded her of how much she'd avoided any contact with Damon over the last few weeks, especially physical. Why was she such a fool that the only time she allowed her true feelings for Damon to surface was when he was in danger of dying, she thought. Elena had tried to bury those feelings so deeply down and her denial of them manifested in her being a total bitch to him recently. He had kissed her on the porch and the overwhelming response of her body had terrified her. It had been like two opposite magnets pulling together. A physical need, a pull, a passion that she had felt in waves of warmth ricocheting through her very core. Every time Damon was near her, the space between them felt thick with heat and sparked with passion. But Elena overrode physical responses with rational thought and had pushed those feelings away. There were too many reasons why she could not allow herself to concede and accept her love for Damon. Aside from him being Stephan's brother, and him being a monster, Damon's love was so fierce and absolute it overwhelmed her. He was cruel, and snarky, and sarcastic and unfeeling most of the time, but when he loved, Damon did it completely – it was absolute – and Elena had never felt something so pure and so terrifying. That's why Elena had told Damon his love was a problem at the ball, not because she didn't want it, but because it was so intense that it was suffocating her and he had been so overprotective. But she had hurt him so badly with her words, and instead of explaining her reasons for them, she had poured salt in the wound by telling him to "get over it". Since then she could feel him closing down on her. Like a flower slowing folding itself up petal by petal, he was shutting her out and had hit out by sleeping with Rebecca. And the blonde bitch got her revenge on that venting by pitilessly torturing Damon. They had come full circle, and the only one truly responsible for the deceit and hurt was her, Elena.

By the time they arrived at the lake house, Damon was shivering with fever. The vervain plus the extensive injuries had taken their toll. The little blood he had managed to consume had helped, the broken bones seemed to have knitted and the wounds around his wrists had scarred but his chest was still bleeding. He tried to push himself up when the car ground to a halt, but fell back in exhaustion onto Elena's lap. Stephan was at the door and helped him out, half carrying, half pulling him whilst Damon made a feeble effort and tried to walk, propped up against Stephan's arm. The last time they had been at the lake house, she had stabbed Elijah, after stabbing herself. Damon had been there behind the door. But it was Stephan's blood she had swallowed, all the while thinking how relieved she was Damon was there because she had almost lost him again that night after John's trickery.

Stephan lay Damon down on the bed in the lake house and muttered "hang in there brother" whilst looking at Elena and adding "I'm off to get supplies", "Don't answer your phone and don't let anyone know where you are". "I'll be back soon but until he gets his strength back nobody is safe, so don't do anything stupid". And with that he was gone.

What do you do with someone this badly hurt when all you know is basic first aid? What do you do to help an immortal creature, mortally wounded? Ibuprofen isn't going to cut it. Elena did the only thing she could to fill her need to do something and filled a bowl with water to wash the blood caked on Damon. He was only semi-conscious. Drifting between reality and whatever was on the other side for the undead. Elena raised Damon's torso and whilst he slumped on her, head rested on her shoulder, she struggled to remove his already unbuttoned shirt. His shallow breathing in the crock of her neck sent tingles through her body in ripples. She had imaged undressing him, but not like this. He groaned in agony as she moved his arms to free up the sleeves. She grabbed his face in her hands and pulled it back so that there were mere inches between them and their eyes locked. His lids were heavy but he fought to focus and meet her gaze with such a burning intensity her heart flipped and her breath quickened. "Don't you die on me Damon Salvatore" she said, "Not before I get to show you how much I love you", and with that she closed the distance between them and gently brushed his lips with hers. The touch was like burning. Even half-dead, Damon responded immediately by intensifying the kiss and parting her lips with the tip of his tongue. He pushed into her and the cold wetness sent a tingle bolting through her spine and caused a tightening in her groin. It was a raw and passionate kiss that wordlessly expressed all the passion and desire they'd bottled up for the past year. They broke apart quickly, breathless for her part, and while boring into her eyes, Damon uttered "You've got a thing for me dying huh? It's the only time you kiss me". She laughed but quickly halted as Damon doubled up in pain and let out a shocking moan while spitting up blood. Elena laid him back onto the bed and watched as he curled up, cradling his abdomen, writhing in pain. Sweat beaded his brow. "Shhh Damon, it's going to be ok" she heard herself say but it was a pathetic platitude that she uttered mechanically because she didn't know what else to do. His sent was intoxicating and she yearned for the intimacy they had shared not one minute ago.

Damon had calmed but was considerably weakened by the latest attack of the vervain on his system. He lay still but his eyes followed her as she moved to get a washcloth. He was too still, as only vampires can be, with no rise and fall of his chest, his breathing suspended to save the body effort. He tried to speak to her as she sat on the edge of the bed, but the words were lost, too weak and inaudible. "It's ok" she repeated like a mantra. Elena lent in to kiss him again, stopping short of his lips and breathing out the words "I love you" before caressing his sweet mouth. She took the washcloth and rinsed it in water before wringing it out and slowly and methodically wiping away the blood on Damon's skin. It would have been sensual if not for the morbid circumstances. She began with his wrists where the traps had bitten through the flesh and gently worked the wash cloth over the hills and valleys of his hands wiping away the rivulets of crimson. Her touch on his skin was a panacea, a life-giving warmth permeated through him. Elena then moved to his chest and with the intricacy of her gesture, she couldn't help but admire his incredible form, an Adonis. He lifted his arm and tenderly stroked her cheek. The intimacy between them was overpowering and she felt intoxicated.

Blood stands for life. Like an insatiable void vampires must consume a living persons blood and by sucking away their life force, allow themselves to live. One person nourishes themselves at another's expense, what one gains the other loses. This was the integral nature of the beast, of the predator and Elena knew this. She knew that Damon needed blood to survive and she knew that he could not generate his own life force without her transferring her own. She could save him, she could be his savior after all the times he had acted as hers. "You need to drink my blood" she whispered. She knew that he would protest so she preempted and placed her finger over his lips in a hushing motion. He was so pale and the blood bags had not aided. He needed to feed, not drink. "Damon" she continued, "the other day I accused you of being the wrong person to teach Stephan control. I was wrong in trying to hurt you, you are a master of control and I trust you implicitly". Damon let his eyes graze over Elena's face and they came to rest at her eyes, boring a hole in them with their intensity. "You have no idea how much I want you Elena" Damon growled in a horse voice "but not like this". "Have you never thought about it?" she questioned. Damon hesitated in answering but there was raw passion in his voice when he explained "I think about it every minute I'm with you Elena. You're like a drug for me with the addiction calling to me in temptation". "I live with temptation every day I'm around humans Elena, but it's not like this. Sure with Ric and Bonnie and Matt and Carol I feel their life force and hear their blood pumping through their veins, but with you it's different. It's a need like a half calling out to the other to make it whole. A siren song calling to me, probably leading to my destruction" he added with a sly smile. His breathing labored as the toll of talking took hold and he lay his hand back, exhausted. "But not like this" he finished.

Elena was suddenly petrified that Damon's sheer stubbornness would see her lose him right when they'd exposed their true feelings to each other. Determined to force the issue she raced out of the room and came back with a kitchen knife pointed at her wrist. Damon looked like a caged animal when he saw her action. "Stop Elena" he cried, "Please put the knife down and listen to me". The effort of fighting her caused another wave of poison to shoot through his body and he rolled onto his side spasming in pain. She sped to his side and stroked his head pleading "You see Damon, you need my blood, please take it". "Ok " he croaked, "but if I'm going to feed off you I want you enjoy it – I can make it pleasurable, for both of us – do you trust me?". "I already said I do" she answered with sincerity. He grabbed her then, forceful yet all the while gentle and pulled her next to him, her back spooned into his torso. The contact of their bodies was electrifying and the whisper of his breath on her neck gave her chills. He could feel her fear, or more, apprehension, but he could also feel her desire. "Don't move" he murmured, moving his lips into the nape of her neck and gently planting warm kisses. He stopped on her carotid artery and even she could feel her heat beat, wild within her, pulsing at this point. His tongue slid over the spot and the warmth of it was shocking, spreading itself through her and heating up her groin. Her breathing quickened and she was so overcome with desire and need she felt she would explode. She felt the change in Damon, a sort of crackling, as his features transformed into vampire beauty and as he whispered "I love you" his fangs pierced her skin and the penetration was like nothing she had felt before, on the edge of pain and ecstasy.


End file.
